SPECIAL REPORT: Federal contractor says it will use USIS/DAC in fingerprint-based checks

US Investigations Services, the parent company of the DAC Services, will be involved in the background check process for truck drivers with hazmat endorsements.

A federal official told Land Line earlier this year that USIS/DAC would not be the primary contractor. Land Linelearned this week, however, that USIS would be involved on a different level.

USIS, long a target of truck drivers' distrust over its handling of truckers' employment records, has now been revealed as a subcontractor for Integrated Biometric Technologies. That company was chosen earlier this year by the Transportation Security Administration as its preferred contractor for fingerprint and background information collection for hazmat drivers, and will be used for that function in 34 states.

Charles R. Carroll, vice chairman and CEO of Integrated Biometric Technologies, said USIS operates the call center where truckers call in questions or fill out their applications online. USIS is also contracted to provide truckers information on the status of their applications.

OOIDA contends that any company contracted by the TSA to collect information to be used in conducting sensitive background checks on drivers must be free of any business interest in the trucking industry.

"TSA must not place a private company into the course of public duty when that company may then have an opportunity to further its private interests," said Todd Spencer, OOIDA's executive vice president. "It's called conflict of interest, and it is wholly unethical."

For more on this story, please see the upcoming March/April 2005 print edition of Land Line Magazine.